home ::

Ceramic flat irons or chemical straighteners?

When you first thought about using ceramic flat irons to straighten your hair did you also consider using chemical straighteners? We use some form of chemical on our hair every day but what I am talking about here are really scary sounding ones like sodium hydroxide, guanidine hydroxide and ammonium thioglycolate. Now I've never tried the chemical straightener treatment but the use of the word "chemical" is enough to scare me off. So whats involved and why choose ceramic flat irons instead of chemical straighteners (also known as relaxing).


Using ceramic flat irons (with tourmaline)

One of the main advantages of using ceramic flat irons is that they are quick and easy to use and with the advances of modern science your hair can be straightened in minutes with great results. There are loads of models on the market but you should choose ones which are made with ceramic/tourmaline. Tourmaline is much better than just ceramic as it gives much greater results than the older style ceramic only style straighteners. The botton line is these types of irons are getting cheaper, are easy to use and produce great results.

Chemical straighteneing

Firstly, just like using ceramic flat irons, using chemical straighteners on your hair is not a difficult process but you should ALWAYS seek prefessional advice. This way the first time you do it the hair stylist can advice on the correct strength of chemical for your hair type. They do whats known as a "Strand Test" which checks your hair for hair texture, porosity, elasticity and the presence or absence of any hair damage.

To summarise what strength is used on what hair types I have put together the following table for reference.

Hair type Chemical strength
Fine, chemically lightened, or colored Very mild relaxing formula
Normal, medium-textured virgin hair regular strength
Coarse virgin hair strong or super

Once the hair stylist detrermines your hair type the whole process of chemical straightening is carried out. The following is an outline of what teh whole process involves.

  • shampoos designed specifically for relaxers
  • petroleum cream
  • chemical hair relaxer formula
  • neutralizer
  • hair relaxing conditioners

After the hair is treated it will still need to be well looked as lack of care will make the hair very brittle. You will need to do some deep conditioning a few times a week and use a good moisturizing shampoo as your hair will be a lot drier because of the relaxing process.

For me there is no choice here and I sill stick with my ceramic flat irons any day. However, if you do decide to use chemical straighteners then make sure and get it done professionally.

Resource Center

submit Submit your topic related site and we'll review it for our Partner Sites where we provide link exchange information.

Tour our site using the Site Map. We respect your privacy - see our terms for more info.

 

© Copyright 2005 www.A1-Hair-Straighteners.com ~ All Rights Reserved.

This site is protected under both U.S. Federal copyright law and international
treaties. No part of this work, including text, look and feel, layout, images, may
be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means.